How Fast Should I Walk?

This is a tough question, because there may be a different answer for each person, depending on their level of fitness and their goal.

General advice  walk as fast as you feel comfortable at first and then gradually increase your pace. You eventually want to walk at a moderate level  in other words, you should still be able to have a conversation while you walk, but not be able to sing. Use the scale below with the target of increasing your exertion to 12 or 13 for a health benefit, more for added weight loss and endurance benefit. Listen to your body. If you feel like youre walking too fast, slow down.

While you are walking, use this scale to rate how hard it feels like you are working. The rating takes into account your heart rate, how hard you are breathing, feelings of muscle fatigue, sweating, etc. and reflects how vigorous the exercise is. The scale ranges from 6 to 20, where 6 means no exertion at all and 20 means maximal exertion. Choose the number that best describes your level of exertion. This will give you a good idea of the intensity level of your activity, and you can use this information to speed up or slow your walking pace to reach your desired range. For moderate-level exercise, you should aim to maintain a RPE of 12 to 14.

Another way to measure how hard you are working is to use the Talk test. During Light exercise, you would be able to sing while you are exercising. For moderate-level exercise you would not be able to sing but you should be able to talk and carry on a conversation. If you are too out of breath to talk, then you are working too hard.